A data communication network, e.g., a wireless sensor network, generally includes multiple data communication nodes operably connected with each other for communicating data. Depending on the operation cycle, each data communication nodes may act as a sender operable to transmit data to neighboring nodes and as a receiver operable to receive data from neighboring nodes. Typically, these sensor networks are controlled through medium access control (MAC) protocols that can be classified into two categories, sender-initiated MAC and receiver-initiated MAC.
In sender-initiated MAC, the senders are responsible for controlling data communication. Each sender independently chooses a window size and competes with other senders for access to the channels of the receiver. The performance of sender-initiated MAC can be analysed based on the decoupling assumption adopted in the well-known Bianchi model of 802.11 networks.
Unlike sender-initiated MAC, in receiver-initiated MAC, it is the receiver that initiates data transmission for all intended senders, and the senders compete for channel access based on the same back-off windows controlled by the receiver. Compared with sender-initiated MAC, receiver-initiated MAC is more energy efficient and is capable of delivering heavy traffic loads, and so it has recently received a great deal of attention. Despite its advantages, one problem associated with receiver-initiated MAC is that its performance is rather difficult to evaluate. This is because the decoupling assumption that can be used for evaluating sender-initiated MAC is not applicable for analyzing performance of receiver-initiated MAC.
There is a need to better assess the performance of receiver-initiated MAC through theories and simulations to facilitate development of receiver-initiated MAC.